In this Virginia History Blog, we look at two titles related to Washington, Jefferson and Madison, “The Great Virginia Triumvirate” and “The Founding Fathers Reconsidered”. Patrick Henry is the focus of “The Mind of a Patriot”, and Madison is the subject of longitudinal study “James Madison: Philosopher, Founder and Statesman”.
Current releases related to Virginia history in other eras from Spring 2018 journals can be found in previous Virginia History Blogs at Colonial Virginia – Spring 2018, Revolutionary Virginia – Spring 2018, and Civil War Virginia – Spring 2018, and New South and Modern Virginia – Spring 2018.
Summer journal titles begin with the Colonial Virginia Era i , Colonial Virginia Era ii, Revolution and New Nation,, and Jefferson and Madison.
The TVH webpage for Revolution, Constitution and New Nation Eras 1750-1824, features our top title picks taken from the bibliographies of three surveys of Virginia History’s 400 years: two that are widely used in Virginia college courses, and one to be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2019.
The Table of Contents divides Political and Economic Virginia, 1750-1824 into Revolution and Constitution Policy, and New Nation Policy. Topical history is treated under headings of Social History, Gender in Virginia, Religious Virginia and African American Virginian. Finally, two wars are featured under American Revolution and the War of 1812.
The Great Virginia Triumvirate
John P. Kaminski wrote The Great Virginia Triumvirate: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison in the Eyes of Their Contemporaries in 2010. Available from the University of Virginia Press, Kindle and online new and used. A companion to Stuart Leibiger Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (1999) and Adrienne Koch Jefferson and Madison: The Great Collaboration (1950).
Kaminski offers a compact biography of each of these three leading Virginians, recounting the recollections of their contemporaries. He balances the public and private personas of each Founder, reflecting George Washington’s firm nationalism, Thomas Jefferson’s Virginian slaveholder and expansionist identity, and James Madison’s reemphasis from early nationalist to a kind of Virginia-centeredness.
These biographies present material from the famous and the unknown, revealing much about the men and their habits and personalities rather than surveying their politics and personal interactions among themselves.
To buy “The Great Virginia Triumvirate” on Amazon, click here.
R. B. Bernstein wrote The Founding Fathers Reconsidered in 2009. Available from the Oxford University Press, Kindle and online new and used.
In this book, Berstein seeks to update the reader on the research about the Founders over the last fifty years, including the Virginians Washington, Jefferson and Madison. He gathers contributions by topic, such as “independence”, “federalism” and “politics”. There is a summary of the state constitution making process in the 1770s and 1780s and the innovations attributed to each state.
The primary focus is on the evolution of constitutional democracy rather than an intellectual history of founders’ ideals. Important context is given in a comparison of the political constraints between modern and 18th century politicians. Bernstein’s denunciation of originalism is rooted in a critique of the same appeal made in Roger B. Taney’s Dred Scott decision. “The History the Founding Fathers Made” addresses the shifting reputations the Founders have enjoyed among both historians and in the jurisprudence of the legal profession.
To buy “Founding Fathers Reconsidered” on Amazon, click here.
The Mind of a Patriot
Kevin J. Hayes wrote The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas in 2008. It is available from the University of Virginia Press, on Kindle and online new and used.
While Patrick Henry may not have been credited as one of the Revolution’s intellectual leaders, neither was he an untutored “child of Nature” as sometimes pictured by contemporaries and biographers. Henry’s political enemy Thomas Jefferson seems to have contributed substantially to an unflattering reputation, and William Wirt’s 1817 biography asserted a distain for Henry’s education and intellect.
Hayes develops the intellectual currents influencing Henry by studying his personal library. These volumes reflected the extent of his education, his legal training, influences on his oratory, sources for his political views including religious toleration, Christianity and the Enlightenment, and an opposition to slavery.
To buy “The Mind of a Patriot” on Amazon, click here.
James Madison: Philosopher, Founder and Statesman
John R. Vile, William D. Pederson, and Frank J. Williams wrote James Madison: Philosopher, Founder and Statesman in 2008. It is available from the University of Ohio Press, on Kindle and online new and used.
In this collection of over a dozen essays presented at a conference held at Louisiana State University addressing Madison’s role as a revolutionary and constitutional theorist, President and elder statesman to his death in 1836. John C. Calhoun’s representation of Madison as a proto-nullifier frustrated and angered Madison.
Topics include Madison’s education related to the mentoring of John Witherspoon, development of the concept of an “extended republic”, ratification of the Constitution, religious liberty. The influence of Madison’s thinking on subsequent Supreme Court Justices is apparent in their judicial review of federal and state statutes, their protection of minority rights, and their protection of religious liberty.
To buy “James Madison: Philosopher, Founder and Statesman” on Amazon, click here.
Additional history related to Virginia during this time period can be found at the Table of Contents of TheVirginiaHistorian website on the page for Revolution, Constitution and New Nation Eras, 1750-1824. Titles are organized by topics related to Political and Economic Virginia, Social, Gender, Religious, African American Virginia, and Wars in Virginia during this time span.
General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Note: Insights for these reviews include those available from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.